Big win over Stroudsburg has Bears focused on second half

A good mix of experienced players and talented newcomers helped Pleasant Valley's boys tennis team go unbeaten through the first half of the Mountain Valley Conference schedule.

JOE MIEGOC

A good mix of experienced players and talented newcomers helped Pleasant Valley's boys tennis team go unbeaten through the first half of the Mountain Valley Conference schedule.

Veteran coach Mark Allison, in his 18th year as the Bears' head coach, has seen strong play for both the singles and doubles flights, with some players taking on more responsibility and others settling into new roles.

A pair of singles players — sophomore Jon White and junior Jon Walmach — each moved up a spot from last year to first and second singles, respectively. Junior Steve Berry sits at third singles after playing doubles last year.

Sophomore Erik Ammerman, who saw some varsity time last year, and Brandon Percey, who moved up from the junior varsity, earned a key victory at second doubles in PV's 5-2 victory over Stroudsburg on Friday. Another mixed pair, returning player James Osinski and newcomer Eric Galante, won at fourth doubles against the Mounties.

"It helps that our top two, Jon White and Jon Walmach, both played singles last year so they have a lot of experience and everybody kind of feeds off them," Allison said. "Steve (Berry) played doubles for us last year and then we really only have two guys with a lot experience playing doubles back so there are four new guys in there."

While all three singles players have varsity experience, it's the doubles teams that have stepped up their play.

Along with Jeff Olah and Noah Soltis at third doubles, the three teams have turned themselves into better players by working hard on the court and on their chemistry.

"It's nice how all three teams have jelled together," Allison said. "That's probably the toughest part about coaching tennis. You do a lot of your working coaching tennis with your doubles teams. Obviously you work with your singles players, too, but there's a lot involved with doubles and not only strategy wise but getting your guys to jell as a unit."

A little motivation from last season has helped the Bears, too.

Pleasant Valley and Stroudsburg split the regular-season matches and both finished 11-1, forcing a winner-take-all championship match. It came down to first doubles, where the Mounties rallied to capture a 4-3 victory and their fourth straight MVC title.

"That championship match could have gone either way," Allison said. "Stroudsburg has a good team year in and year out and have shown themselves as the team to beat. And the nice part this year is not only are we playing well, but we have a lot of underclassmen. We only have two seniors who start for us so it speaks well for how are young players have come together and shown a lot of maturity and leadership out on the court."

While Friday's victory over Stroudsburg was nice, the Bears know better than to pat themselves on the back too much.

They started the second half of the MVC schedule with a victory over East Stroudsburg North, the conference regular-season champion in 2007-08. The MVC tournament is at PV on Friday and will be another good test to see how far the Bears have come.

"I never look ahead and I never count my chickens before they're going to hatch," Allison said. "We've got a lot of tennis to play. We did well in the first half, but that's all we've done. We've got nothing to show for it yet and hopefully by the end of the year we will, but I think the kids know what they have to do.

"They're not looking ahead at all, we respect all of our opponents no matter who it is and when it comes time for the big matches we feel like we're prepared enough that we can compete."

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